Bitter and tough, the coca leaf chewed throughout the South American Andes for thousands of years as a natural pick-me-up has been getting an appetizing makeover in Bolivia.
Traditionally sold as untreated, chopped leaves, several small businesses are now bruising the foliage to make it softer, and adding flavors such as strawberry, mango or coffee.
What started as an experiment about a decade ago has really taken off, especially in Bolivia’s economic capital of Santa Cruz — a city of 3.4 million people.
Photo: AFP
“The flavoring is like adding seasoning to food. Normally flavors such as bubblegum, banana are used, and it adds a special something,” consumer Isaac Salazar, 21, said. “They come already crushed, soft, with a savory or sweet flavor added, which makes it perfect for passing the time.”
The practice of chewing coca has its own verb in Bolivia’s indigenous Aymara language: pijcheo.
It means to masticate the leaves, like chewing gum, without swallowing.
The leaf — from the same plant that cocaine is manufactured from — has been ascribed with the wide-ranging properties of quelling hunger, inhibiting stress and imparting an energy boost.
Coca is also consumed in infusions, and in some nations it is included in flour used to make special breads and cakes.
The work of transforming the fibrous leaf into a more easily chewable product is laborious.
At the El Dogor factory and store run by 23-year-old Luis Vasquez in Santa Cruz, about 20 workers share the tasks of removing the hard stems, placing what is left of the foliage into plastic bags, adding flavorings and pounding away with a mallet.
The flattened end product, labeled Machucada Coca El Dogor, is placed in the fridge and sold for US$4.30 per unit of about 113g.
The shop does brisk business.
“We have a variety of coca leaf products, including fruit-flavored leaves and any other flavor a customer may ask for,” Vasquez said.
More and more, clients “prefer it mixed with a flavoring,” he said.
Consumer Gary Soleto, 45, said the traditional way of consuming unadulterated coca leaf would never disappear, “but we change and we have taken on new habits ... to continue consuming and tasting new flavors.”
Official data show that one in three people in a nation of 12 million — almost one-third of them indigenous — chew coca or use it for medicinal and ritual purposes.
There were 30,500 hectares of coca plantations in Bolivia in 2021, according to a UN estimate, up 4 percent from 2020.
Potential coca leaf production was estimated at 44,900 to 56,200 tonnes, with an estimated value of US$352 million to US$431 million, a report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime says.
The Bolivian state authorizes the cultivation of a maximum of 22,000 hectares.
There have been clashes between coca leaf producers and police in Bolivia in a dispute over control of commercialization of the plant.
Seven people sustained mostly minor injuries in an airplane fire in South Korea, authorities said yesterday, with local media suggesting the blaze might have been caused by a portable battery stored in the overhead bin. The Air Busan plane, an Airbus A321, was set to fly to Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport in southeastern Busan, but caught fire in the rear section on Tuesday night, the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. A total of 169 passengers and seven flight attendants and staff were evacuated down inflatable slides, it said. Authorities initially reported three injuries, but revised the number
‘BALD-FACED LIE’: The woman is accused of administering non-prescribed drugs to the one-year-old and filmed the toddler’s distress to solicit donations online A social media influencer accused of filming the torture of her baby to gain money allegedly manufactured symptoms causing the toddler to have brain surgery, a magistrate has heard. The 34-year-old Queensland woman is charged with torturing an infant and posting videos of the little girl online to build a social media following and solicit donations. A decision on her bail application in a Brisbane court was yesterday postponed after the magistrate opted to take more time before making a decision in an effort “not to be overwhelmed” by the nature of allegations “so offensive to right-thinking people.” The Sunshine Coast woman —
BORDER SERVICES: With the US-funded International Rescue Committee telling clinics to shut by tomorrow, Burmese refugees face sudden discharge from Thai hospitals Healthcare centers serving tens of thousands of refugees on the Thai-Myanmar border have been ordered shut after US President Donald Trump froze most foreign aid last week, forcing Thai officials to transport the sickest patients to other facilities. The International Rescue Committee (IRC), which funds the clinics with US support, told the facilities to shut by tomorrow, a local official and two camp committee members said. The IRC did not respond to a request for comment. Trump last week paused development assistance from the US Agency for International Development for 90 days to assess compatibility with his “America First” policy. The freeze has thrown
TESTING BAN: Satellite photos show a facility in the Chinese city of Mianyang that could aid nuclear weapons design and power generation, a US researcher said China appears to be building a large laser-ignited fusion research center in the southwestern city of Mianyang, experts at two analytical organizations said, a development that could aid nuclear weapons design and work exploring power generation. Satellite photos show four outlying “arms” that would house laser bays, and a central experiment bay that would hold a target chamber containing hydrogen isotopes the powerful lasers would fuse together, producing energy, said Decker Eveleth, a researcher at US-based independent research organization CNA Corp. It is a similar layout to the US$3.5 billion US National Ignition Facility (NIF) in northern California, which in 2022 generated
RSS